Wednesday, February 16, 2011

more small changes, harder than you'd think

I'm still struggling with working on my small changes in 2011.

This is how I've been doing:

Week 1: Weigh in and record my weight every Monday.

I was late last week but I have been faithfully doing this. I'm down 5lbs since the beginning of the year. Not sure if there is any causal relationship or if this is due to my ongoing (ahem) gastrointestinal issues.

Week 2: Begin doing strength training exercises developed for cancer survivors. Work up to about thirty minutes, three times a week.

I got off track last week. It's hard to do core work when you have weasels chewing on your innards. I need to stop using this as an excuse not to work my arms and legs, though.

I've certainly been drinking more water, most days. I think half my weight may be an unrealistic goal, leaving me bloated and running to the loo all the time. I think I need to keep the goal but adjust the amount of water I'm expected to consume.

Week 5: Meditate every day. Start at five minutes and work my way up to twenty.

I have not meditated every day but I have at least half a dozen times in the last couple of weeks, which is around half a dozen times more than I ever have in my life. I still have to fight the monkey brain but I've worked my way up to 8 minutes. It's one way to make time slow down.

Week 6: I decided not to add anything to my plate.

Week 7: Always sit down to eat.

You'd think this would be no big deal but just a few minutes ago, I went to get myself a snack and caught myself eating sunflower seeds, while standing in the kitchen and thinking of wriitng this post. Clearly I need to work on mindful eating.

7 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Hi Laurie,

In my most humble opinion, you are doing brilliantly at choosing goals and working hard at getting to them. These small changes are, just as you say, calling for "mindfulness"which is one hell of a word but we all know what it means. Very hard to accomplish around food intake, I find. Trying, trying.

I still need to get back to exercising hard enough to break a sweat. I used blisters on my feet as a way to avoid this for a few weeks. I think they are healed now, so . . . . no more excuses!

I have done qigong twice this week and each time I slept much better. I didn't last night and woke up more . . . .one would think that would be enough to do qigong every night . . .

Am having a glass of red wine at the moment because I spent 45 minutes either on hold with the doc's office or trying to tell the wound care supply person why I needed more dressings before it was time to get my next 30-day supply which is Feb 28. Sigh.

My doc actually recommended NOT overdue the water. If you drink a lot of water you can flush out your electrolytes too fast. I have yet to find a sports drink that doesn't taste nasty due to artificial sweeteners. I have become an OJ addict.

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about me

Laurie lives, writes and plays in beautiful Ottawa with her two gorgeous sons, one handsome spouse and an ill-behaved Tibetan Terrier. She enjoys strong coffee, knitting, reading, long walks around the neighbourhood and trying to find her floors under all the rubble (OK maybe not so much that last part). Laurie is the author of Not Done Yet: Living Through Breast Cancer and she also blogs at getfrivolous.com She dreams of one day writing a novel, travelling to Australia and finding matches for all the socks that come out of the laundry.